How the Accuracy and Computational Cost of Spiking Neuron Simulation are Affected by the Time Span and Firing Rate

Abstract

It is known that, depending on the numerical method, the simulation accuracy of a spiking neuron increases monotonically and that the computational cost increases in a power-law complexity as the time step reduces. Moreover, the accuracy and computational cost also are substantially affected by the mechanism responsible for generating the action potentials. However, little attention has been paid to how the time span and firing rate influence the simulation. The purpose of this study was to describe how the accuracy, computational cost, and efficiency are affected by the time span and firing rate. We found that the simulation is importantly affected by these two variables